Conch Fritters

Conch fritters have become one of my ultimate go-to menu choices when down in southern Florida. I had never had them (or even heard of them, for that matter) before my Chief Culinary Consultant clued me in on what I was missing. Before our first trip down to Florida together about two and a half years ago, he really talked them up, and told me I had to try them. I’m usually game for fried anything, so I promised I would give them a try. I think we ended up having them at no less than three different places that week. Needless to say, I was hooked! We just came back from our fourth trip down there, and they continue to be a staple of ours. We’ve finally settled on a favorite (Benny’s on the Beach in Lake Worth), but started talking about tackling them at home. I promised to try them before we left, and on our last night in Florida, I whipped them up. I was pleasantly surprised (shocked, really) that the flavor was dead-on and the dipping sauce was near perfection. Now there’s no excuse for waiting to get to the ocean before having conch fritters!

I kind of thought that being less than 10 minutes from the ocean would mean that conch would be readily available at most markets. I thought wrong. Finding conch ended up being a wild goose chase. The good news is that I’ve already scoped it out in Pittsburgh and found that Wholey’s in the Strip District carries a five-pound box of frozen conch. Conch fritters in the ‘Burgh, look out! If you can’t find conch, shrimp makes an excellent substitution. (I would recommend using the frozen, cooked shrimp. Thaw according to the package directions, and then remove the tails before mincing.)

I think I spent an entire day flipping through cookbooks and Googling conch fritter recipes. I never found one recipe that seemed like a dead ringer for the fritters we’ve grown to love, so I ended up improvising. I used some basic fritter ratios of flour, baking soda, egg, and milk and then added in the ingredients and seasonings that we love. The result was an amazing, raging success. We like our conch fritters spicy, and these definitely have a nice bite, but we’d probably ratchet up the heat just a tiny bit more. The dipping sauce lends heat as well, so go by your own personal preferences. You can add or omit cayenne to get to your desired level of spice.

If you’ve never had a conch fritter, I insist that you must try them the next time you see them on a menu. You won’t know how you ever ate before they came into your life! Or instead of waiting for them to appear on a menu, make them at home They come together really quickly – the longest part of the recipe is waiting for the oil to heat up. Make yourself a mojito or rum runner and have an island party in the kitchen with these conch fritters!

Directions:

1. Make the Dipping Sauce: Puree the salsa in a blender. Transfer to a medium bowl and add the mayonnaise, garlic powder, basil, salt, cayenne, and pepper and whisk well to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. Stir well before serving.

2. Make the Fritters: Pour oil into a small frying pan or deep skillet, so that it comes at least one inch up the sides of the pan. Heat the oil to 350 degrees F.

3. Meanwhile, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and egg in a large bowl and stir well (the combination will look shaggy). Add the buttermilk to create a thick paste (the mixture should be the consistency of muffin batter). Stir in the conch, jalapeño, onion, red pepper, carrots, garlic, and seasoning, making sure that the ingredients are evenly distributed.

4. Using spoons or a cookie scoop, drop 1-inch balls of batter into the oil. Fry, turning with a slotted spoon, until golden brown, about 2 minutes for smaller fritters, up to 4 minutes if you made them a little larger. If you need to, work in batches so that you don't over-crowd the pan.

5. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the fritters to paper towels to drain. Serve immediately with the dipping sauce.

I guess living down here we are so spoiled and just take conch fritters for granted huh? I’ve never tried making them but the next time I see conch for sale I will have to try it! You are soooo lucky to have the Strip District They truly have EVERYTHING!

Although I live in TN now, I was raised in FL and just looking at these (and the coconut shrimp) makes me happy. Those two together are always a fine meal, and for what it’s worth, the orange marmalade often served with the shrimp is also delicious with the conch fritters!

I’m Bahamian (where conch fritters originate and your recipe is very different from what I know. Try adding some thyme to the batter and switch out the jalepeno for a habanero (to taste). You’ll be surprised how it enhances the flavour.

Yum! I do not eat fried foods, due to getting a stomach ache, but I’m making an exception to the rule! This looks like a great for my Friday night dinner! I’m going to pick up some shrimp today and make this! Thanks for the recipe! Have a fabolous wekend!!

I drooled over your FLA post and this recipe looks devine.
I wont bother looking for conch up here in Ontario, Canada.

To make these safely I would use uncooked shrimp and do the extra step of cooking etc from fresh/uncooked frozen. All of the pre-cooked frozen shrimp contain sulphites, and hence I avoid them as they cause seizures in a family member. As pre-cooked thawed shrimp probably came from a bag of frozen, I simply avoid all pre-cooked shrimp.
Love your posts…. Happy Easter!

I love you for posting these! They always make me think of my spring break trip to the Bahamas in 2001. They also make me even more excited about my upcoming trip to Key West! I’ll be making these soon. Yum!

Oh wow!! I didn’t know they had conch @ Wholey’s. I LOVE conch fritters. Had my first ones at My Bar @ Sunset House Dive Resort in Grand Cayman. Thanks for the recipe – I see a trip to the Strip in our future.

The first time I ever had Conch Fritters was on my honeymoon in St. Thomas, USVI. At the hotel bar. When my hubby and I got to the hotel, we were starved, as the food on the plane was just awful and in small portions. We immediately went down to the bar. On their menu were the fritters so I said let’s order some and we did. They were amazing.

The only kind of conch I can find here in NJ is canned in a 28 oz can and it is $11 for the can so I buy it once in awhile but I have never made fritters with it – I’ve made Scungili Fra Diavolo with it. Also a winner BTW.

Next time I feel like spending the money on the conch, I will try the recipe. I adore anything fried.

Oh this makes me miss all the years when I had to spend a week, every other month, in the Caribbean for business…it was a tough life, especially with my daily intake of conch fritters and conch chowder…I will now dream about them for weeks on end…

I made conch fritters before and posted the recipe on my blog if you want to try another version. I’m from the Bahamas, so I like to think they’re pretty authentic Don’t mind the pics. It’s an old post before I got fancy with things! Love your post! I was so excited to see a Conch Fritters recipe pop up in my Google Reader.

I absolutely love following you blog, but I must say that I am deeply disappointed that last week included a recipe for conch. While not yet formally considered an endangered species, conch has become more and more rare over the past few years due to overfishing and the ignorance of the public, who still think that consumption of this food is acceptable. Encouraging people to eat this organism is irresponsible.

I urge you to encourage anyone who reads your blog to check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s seafood watch list, a guide that shows which seafoods are ecologically ethical to consume and which should be avoided for the good of the planet. Currently, this advisory lists queen conch under the red category, meaning it should not be consumed by anyone who cares about the future of our oceans.

Hi Allie,
I believe Michelle’s response was actually for me, regarding my own Conch Fritters post. But with respect to your post, I’ve had a lot of success making Corn Fritters, using the same recipe but substituting corn instead of conch. It’s a good alternative to using conch in this recipe. Hope you get to try this!

First time at your site – making clam fritters tonight and looking forward to incorporating your recipe. I love Pittsburgh and actually had conch fritters at Ray’s Marlin Beach Bar and Grill when I lived there ~ not sure it it’s still open… (FYI: it’s an “alternative” place, so some folks might not feel welcome but we had a great time – they had a little sand beach under the bar stools – so cool).

Hi Jay, I’m not sure, but I’ve never left the batter to sit for any length of time; I just make it right before I’m about to fry the fritters. I’m guessing some type of chemical reaction caused the color change.

If you want to buy conch, or pretty much any other thing you can’t find in regular stores, find a good restaurant near you and make friends with the chef. Buy him a beer or two, and he will probably order whatever you need and charge you what he pays for it… I know I’ve gotten several “hard to find” items for people, you kiss have to know the right purveyor.

I remember these from my days sailing in South Florida and the Bahamas and they are delicious–along with conch salad and cracked conch. The secret ingredient however to these puppies is the addition of tomato paste to the batter–just a suggestion.

Ah conch fritters, I love them but have never made them myself. I have made conch chowder though so I am not a complete failure. I think almost all the restaurants here serve it though and the supermarkets definitely have conch (I’m from the Cayman Islands). I can’t handle too much spice but instead of jalapeno what we would most likely use are scotch bonnet peppers to add some heat :). You might not have them where you are though, not sure.

I love this and I am thinking of trying this. I live in The Bahamas…and we make conch fritters here (you can find fresh conch all the times). It doesn’t require quite the amount of ingredients you listed here ( a total of 9 for the batter and 2 for the sauce) but I can’t wait to try another version to see if it taste the same as the ones I make here. I will comment again when I do it this weekend.

Latricia I am a Bahamian decent and I live in Miami, and all of what they have for the ingredients above is not called for in making conch fritters. Like you a total of nine out of all they listed is needed. There is no carrots nor creole seasoning used in in conch fritters. Everyone adds there own twist to it, but carrots and garlic? Uh, no!

Ya’ll aint check the milk in it eh! Just no! We use the water we boil the conch in for flavor and a little tomato paste. I would try this recipe minus the milk cause I know there is no way you could leave this in the fridge overnight for the flavor to develop.

Well, it’s 25 months since you posted the recipe for Conch Fritters and 60+ years since I used the shells for decoration while discarding the meat. But, this was inspiring. Recently I shopped at a suburban DC oriental market — Great Wall, Rockville, MD — and they had fresh (?) conch meat. So, it looks like I be experimenting and applying your formula soon. (I’m amazed how little conch is required.)

These were amazing. A better substitute for conch is minced clams texture is fabulous, i increased the amount of meat ( clams ) to 10 or 12 ounces and the recipe is just astonishingly good. I fooled all my friends that love conch fritters into thinking it was conch and there jaws hit the floor when i told them they were really clam! This one will be in my recipe book for many years to come.